Among the different challenges faced by businesses, the most common among them is that of trust. Trust is the foundation on which your whole business stands. Trust is a very important factor in business. If your trust levels falter, then your business will be shaky and you will not be able to take your business to new heights. Without building trust in all stakeholders, i.e. customers, competitors, employees, etc. It is very hard to continue the business in a smooth way.
As it goes in every successful relationship, trust between people is a must if you wish to keep your relationship flourishing. The same goes for business. If a person wants to keep his business up and running, then he must establish a relationship of trust with his clients, stakeholders as well as employees. He must strive hard to earn their trust as well to keep his business booming. This two-way relationship is what makes the businesses tick.
Trust- The biggest challenge faced by businesses (External Factors)
It is understandable in this day and age, to have trouble trusting people with whom you work or interact with. There are many examples of business owners who seemed ordinary until their scandals or corruption came to light. An example of this is Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of a social media platform known as Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg has faced serious scrutiny after a scandal surfaced where unsuspecting and non-consenting 70,000 Facebook users were made part of a psychological experiment.
The study was conducted to identify how changes in the Newsfeed could have an impact on the mental health of the users. Besides this, there are many other controversies and scandals which have landed Mark Zuckerberg in hot waters. The biggest one as of yet was the involvement of Facebook in spreading fake news as well as targeting voters in the 2016 US Presidential elections. Their decision to ignore fact checks on the news has garnered massive dislike from journalists, politicians, and even their employees. This breach of trust has caused many people to reevaluate if Facebook is their safe haven, and thus, many have switched over to other social media platforms, such as Twitter.
For Facebook, it is now really difficult to go back to what it once used to be in terms of trust. Even thoughMark Zuckerberg now owns other social media sites such as Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook has lost its popularity and Mark Zuckerberg is facing great scrutiny for breaching the privacy of people.
Ways to tackle trust issues in your business (Employees’ factors)
We have already established why trust is important in business. Now, if you think that your business is suffering from trust issues that are internal as well as external, there are some steps that you can take to improve the trust situation of your business. Below are some ways which you can adopt to overcome the trust problem of your company:
Why is building trust important in business?
Trust Building is the key to flourishing your business. Many businesses have a toxic work environment. Employees are provided with a stressful work environment, where they are asked to slave off the whole day and listen to their higher-ups about what they could have done better. There is no sense of appreciation and no way to boost the morale of the employees. All this results in trust issues between the employers and their managers. Ignoring this problem will not make it vanish. It will only grow larger until it is too bad to handle and this may also result in the loss of hardworking employees, building trust is the only way to avoid these issues.
The biggest problem with most businesses is that they refuse to look at the problem in their eyes. They get defensive and they blame it all on their employees, how they are not working to their full capacity, or are not good enough. Higher-ups must be informed of their negligence and the employees treated better so that the bridge of trust between the two parties can strengthen.
Besides this, the first step to tackle the trust issue in your business would be to address it with your employees. Hold a meeting or a conference in which you talk about the work environment and how you can improve it. Encourage your employees to speak up against anything toxic or any difficulty they might be facing in working at your company. It is understandable if they are hesitant at first. Note that this is all a result of the work environment that you have provided them with. Encourage your employees to write their thoughts about how the environment can be improved albeit, anonymously so that they feel safe in sharing their thoughts on the matter.
Stop the blame game
Another way to instill trust in your business would be to dismiss the culture of blaming and shaming the employees. It should be accepted that everyone makes mistakes. Therefore, instead of making a big fuss out of a simple mistake, the focus should be on how to make it better and ways to avoid making the same mistake again in the future. Besides this, it is also important to note that employees should be praised when they achieve something worthy of your business. It can be done by simply acknowledging it in words or by giving them a bonus. Therefore, all in all, the triumphs of employees should be celebrated and their mistakes treated as a learning opportunity so that they have more room to grow and express themselves and their skills at your company. This is also a reason why trust is important in business so that your business can grow along with your employees.
Be out and about with your employees
A great way to ensure that trust exists between employees and their managers or other higher-ups is to arrange their meetings in an informal setting. This way they will get to know each other better apart from their workspace. It will also instill a sense of familiarity among the employees and their supervisors. This can be done by arranging informal dinners or lunches with the main idea behind them to mingle with the employees. This way the employees will get to know their bosses and other higher-ups a bit more personally than the way they behave at their workplace.
Be a bit more transparent about the business with your employees
The major and most important way to build trust between different members of your organization would be to be more honest with each other. No one wants their future or their company’s future to be uncertain. Therefore, it is necessary that you, as a higher-up, acknowledge this matter and address it accordingly. The employees should be well–informed about the company’s plans for the future and where they stand in it. This way they will be better able to sync their priorities with that of your business and strive to make the goals achievable so that they can also benefit from it. It is a win-win situation for your employees as well as your business.
Keep up with your promises
It is a given fact that the more promises you keep with your employees, the more trust they will have in you. Therefore, you must be mindful of the promises that you make with your employees and make every effort to fulfill them. This is the best way to ensure that your employees start building their trust in you.
View your employees as people not as money-making machines
When you start seeing your employees as actual humans instead of some machine that generates money, it is inevitable that you will start treating them the same way. This means that your employees will start trusting you more and vice versa.
Own your mistakes
Another sure-fire way to
build a relationship based on trust with your employees, it is necessary that you admit when you are in the wrong. Owning your mistakes is not a sign of weakness, in fact, it is quite the opposite. Employees when knowing that you have made a mistake and that you are admitting it would consider it to be a sign that even you are human and are prone to making mistakes. It will also provide them with an example to follow suit when they have committed a mistake.
Cut out the typical business demeanor when dealing with your employees
Per all the steps mentioned above, it is important to note that without addressing your employees with respect, your trust relationship will not go anywhere. Therefore, you should ditch the usual terse tone that you use to address your employees. Instead, use the appropriate human voice that is not too friendly nor too authoritative. This will ensure that employees know that you are there to look over them and to guide them through it all.
You will be treated as you treat others
To make your business a success, you would have to start trusting people with different kinds of work. Trust and business go hand in hand. You will have to trust people with something and then they will in return trust you with something else. This is how the circle of the economy works. This also means that you will have to trust your customers with their requirements and their priorities. If you provide them with the kind of product they want, then their trust in you would also increase. This may result in you gaining loyal customers for your brand, thereby, securing your business.
Your business will be much stronger
Another important reason why trust is important in business is that it is because of trust that your organization will be able to function more effectively. When employees know that they have support at their back who is willing to lead and guide them, instead of dictating them, they will work to their full potential. Therefore, as the head of your business, it will be advantageous for you if you create a work environment in which trust prevails. If you fail to do so, you will have several chaotic and confused individuals rather than a proper team working under you. Therefore, by creating a trusting environment for your employees, you all will be able to handle the obstacles or any difficulties that you encounter in your business as a team.
Why trust is important in business? Customers’ perspective.
When we talk about business, the most important aspect to make it a success is trust and especially the customers’ trust. Yet, trust is the one that is most often ignored by businesses. Without trust, the business would not be able to run as smoothly as you would like. The trust that you have in your vendors, employees and the trust that they have in you is crucial in the working of a business. Customers’ trust plays a major role in business.
Importance of customer’s trust in your business
Gaining the trust of customers is very important for taking your business to new heights. Customers who keep buying your product and services with good faith may keep buying the company’s products and that can ensure the success of your business in the long run. A company that cheats its customers or fails to live up to promises will quickly lose its customers and go out of business. Unilever is a great example where the customer has trust in their products and their business if flourishing for decades. The increase or decrease of the customer’s trust in your business can play a major impact on the profit and loss of your company.
Read: Importance of business research
It should also be noted that gaining the trust of your clients can be a tedious task, yet losing it will not take much time. Therefore, you must walk on eggshells when dealing with your customers because one wrong move can land you in hot waters. Below are some reasons why trust is important in business.
Trust is related to brand advocacy. If you want to build a strong brand from scratch in the future, trust plays a major role in your business, from the first day keep the high-quality in your business and services. The secret is that if you make high-quality products that cost you high from your competitors do it, why? because people can pay the price of the quality product, APPLE phones are a great example. Make your brand strategy with consideration of customers’ trust.
Feedback is the key
A simple feedback form can make your business more trustable for your consumer. They think that you are asking the quality of your product and service and if they suggest something good you might change the way according to consumer requirements. This trick often works for both so I would suggest keeping asking your consumers’ perspective about your product or services.
Waqar Hussain is the founder of The Business Goals. He writes about entrepreneurial strategies and is an SEO consultant by profession. He is a B.Com, GDM, and an MBA from the Australian Institute of Business.
This very informative and well written article.